Toubkal

Toubkal was an amazing experience. One of those good and bad, scratch that horrible, experiences. Toubkal is one of the highest mountains in North Africa. Day one is a6 hour hike and day two is 9. A couple of my friends hiked it before IST a Peace Corps training we had in Marrakech and had a wonderful time. My friend T told me that he and some of his friends were going and I was of course invited. I am about 7 hours from Marrakech and Toubkal is about 3 hours south of that so for all I new this was going to be one of my only chances so I jumped.

N was nice enough to let us leave our stuff at her place and than we made our way out. We stayed at a really nice hostel and made plans to start the next day. Unfortunately, not only did it rain all night long T woke up with some horrible stomach pain. He headed back to N's and the rest of us headed up the mountain in the rain. Due to the fact I am scared to leave my house due to harassment I have become quite unfit so this hike up was really hard. About a quarter of the way up we ran into another girl from PC E and her friend from the States W, and they were cool enough to let me walk with them as the rest of the group I had come with went ahead.

We finally made it to the refuge about an hour after the others; drenched from the walk in the rain and freezing cold I has sad to find that all of the contents from my pack were wet as well. The night was miserable. The next morning I heard everyone else get up and say that they were going to head up the hill. I not feeling so good rolled over to wake up an hour later and find them all gone.

I checked out and found that the path going up was washed out so I made my way down. Most of the time you are to stick to the donkey path, but because of the rain it was underwater. Somehow I ended up on the goat path at the top of the hills. One of the herders found this to be funny and made his friends with a donkey give me a ride to the right path. I than found myself one bend away from a guy who I though I lost to find he had just climbed a bolder for lunch. George a 56 year old German guy invited me to share his lunch, which was great because the group I had been with took all the food. We chatted for some time until I started back down the hill and he stayed on the bolder for a nap. I finally got back to the town below, stopped for hot chocolate and than made my way back to Tahanaoute to spend the night with T & N. We watched tv, had pancakes, and hot chocolate.

I have to admit the hike was a real bummer until I figured what I needed to do to make myself better and safe. This time things luckily fell into place. Toubkal really ended up being one big metaphor for my Peace Corps experience. I now know who will be there for me and that they will always be there. Now I just need to figure out what is best and safe for me and if the top of the mountain is worth reaching. For now I am just going to enjoy the waterfalls on this epic hike.